TSA Stonewalls Congress About Leaked Manual

Ah, the TSA amuses me to no end sometimes. Recently there was a misguided attempt by the agency to post a “redacted” pdf document of their screening guide online. Sadly, this fell into the trap of being a simple black bar placed across the offending text. Unknown to the parties doing this is that it is a trivial exercise to recover the blacked out text.

Now, the corner office types are circling the wagons.

From ABC:

On Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) acting director insisted to Congress that the mistaken posting of secret airport screening procedures online posed no threat to holiday travelers because the procedures had changed, but refused to provide members of Congress with the newest version of the TSA’s screening manual to prove it.

Ah, fuckwittery abounds. If you’re bored feel free to download a copy of the TSA manual which we have mirrored. They have since removed the document from their website but, too late. The thing is literally all over the tubes of the web.

Now, Congress may have a two drink minimum at the best of times but, I doubt it could be ever considered as wise to piss them off. Gale Rossides, acting TSA head, insisted that the discovered SOP version of the sceening manual that was outdated. But, front line folks for the TSA disagreed.

But current and former Transportation Security Officers (TSO), meaning TSA employees who have direct knowledge of screening procedures, disagreed with Rossides about the impact of the breach. They said that they were appalled that the agency failed to take immediate steps across the country to counteract the heightened travel threat caused by the posting of the improperly redacted document.

I would tend to agree with the folks that work for a living as opposed to the spin doctors.

Call me a cynic.

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